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Colorado MD's Attack Chiropractors, Threatening Their Right to Provide Healing Products and Services

Date Published:

January 11th, 2013

In New Mexico, we have created laws to enable chiropractors with advanced education to administer various natural drugs via injection, as well as certain prescription medicines. Chiropractors nationwide are moving forward to expand their profession. Below is an example of what is happening just north of New Mexico:

The medical establishment in Colorado is up in arms about proposed new guidelines for the state’s chiropractors, which would allow them to administer certain non-prescription drugs in conjunction with natural healing remedies. According to Courthouse News Service (CNS), the Colorado Medical Society recently filed a lawsuit against the Colorado Board of Chiropractic Examiners (BCE) challenging provisions that would permit chiropractors to administer both oral and intravenous drugs to their patients without a medical license.

According to a proposed amendment to the rules and regulations that guide chiropractors in the state of Colorado, a doctor of chiropractic would be free to “administer, prescribe, recommend, compound, sell and distribute” certain natural treatments to patients, which would encompass “homeopathic and botanical medicines, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, antioxidants, enzymes, glandular extracts, non-prescription drugs, durable and non-durable medical goods and devices.”

But the medical establishment in Colorado, which represents some 7,000 members who are generally opposed to the chiropractic profession, is not happy with this particular clause, which it has openly admitted threatens its own multi-million dollar industry. According to the Colorado Medical Society, chiropractors have no legal right to administer any drugs at all, as only licensed medical doctors are permitted to do so under state law.

“The General Assembly has … specifically limited the practice of chiropractic to not infringe upon the practice of medicine,” states the complaint. “The Colorado General Assembly’s delegation of limited rule-making authority … does not include authority to authorize the administration of drugs or the use of subcutaneous injections by chiropractors,” it adds.

At first glance, the complaint might sound reasonable enough — chiropractors are not permitted to administer pharmaceutical drugs without a medical license, and the state’s medical board is merely trying to prevent fraud and protect public health. But upon further investigation, the provision in question does not specifically provision anything out the ordinary as far as chiropractors are concerned, especially since chiropractors would still be prohibited from administering prescription drugs.

As it turns out, the actual point of contention with the amendment, as stated in the complaint, specifically concerns “injectable” drugs, which would apparently include things like injectable vitamin and mineral solutions, for instance. And the idea behind the provision was simply to allow chiropractors the freedom to custom-tailor treatments for their patients, which may, on occasion, call for an injection.

At the same time, most licensed chiropractors in the state reportedly oppose the amendment anyway, and BCE even posted a notice on its website acknowledging that the state’s legislative counsel opposes it. According to reports, the amendment, which was set to take effect on January 14, has been postponed to April 30 pending a hearing on the case.